An excerpt from a homily for the memorial of St. Catherine of Sienaby Cardinal (then Archbishop) Stanislaw Rylko, President of the
Pontifical Council for the Laity, on April 29, 2006, at a retreat for members of
Communion and Liberation.

Christ Saves Us from Nothingness

Excerpt from a homily for the memorial of St. Catherine of Siena (April 29)

“If we truly walk in the light, writes St. John, we are in communion with each
other. We all need this companionship, and we particularly need the
companionship of the saints, masters of life from whom so much can be learned.
Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Catherine of Siena, a Doctor of
the Church and the Patroness of Italy. A humble Third Order Dominican, Catherine
influenced not only the life of her country, but the life of the Church in a
dark era for the papacy. A point of reference and critical conscience for the
popes and for the mighty of her times, powerfully present in the vicissitudes of
the world and the Church, Catherine was a great contemplative whom God
introduced into the abysses of His mystery! She wrote of her intimate experience
of Mystery, “You, eternal Trinity, are like a profound sea, in which the more I
search, the more I find; and the more I find, the more my thirst for seeking You
increases. You are insatiable, and the soul, sating herself in your abyss, is
not sated, because the hunger for You remains. I long for You more and more, O
eternal Trinity, desiring to see You with the light of your light. I have tasted
and seen your abyss with the light of the intellect in your light, O eternal
Trinity” (Dialogue, also known as Treatise on Divine Providence). This is an
extraordinary mystical commentary on the words of John, “God is light; in Him
there is no darkness” (1 Jn 1:5). Like the wise virgins of the Gospel parable,
Catherine is full of the wisdom that comes from on high, and has a great deal to
teach twenty-first century men and women, afflicted with a deleterious activism,
thinking we are living intensely, when instead we are losing our life. This
saint shows all of us how contemplation is an indispensable dimension of the
life of the baptized. The sensitivity to the ephemeral, typical of our times and
our societies, also contaminates Christians, and we often forget that there is
only one way not to “lose life in living,” not to let ourselves be stripped of
what we are: living strongly anchored in God, grafted onto Him like the branches
of a vine, living, that is, as true contemplatives. Today there is a widespread,
erroneous conception of contemplation as escape from reality. It isn’t like
this. The opposite is true: contemplation of the Mystery is the light that
drives away the darkness and enables us to see more, and better; therefore, it
is the way for finding ourselves again as creatures, as persons, as children of
God, the way for finding our own life again. “He is your Lord, bow down before
Him” (Ps 45 [44]:12), we have repeated in the responsorial psalm. Man is never
so much himself, never so great, as when he prostrates himself in contemplation
before the fascinating mystery of God. It is precisely this act of prostration
that exalts man’s dignity, making him the true subject of his actions, making
him truly present where the life of the world is pulsing. I experience this
every time I go to visit the Trappists at the Vitorchiano Monastery, immersed in
contemplative prayer and extraordinarily present at the heart of the world and
the Church. Spiritual exercises are a special occasion for rediscovering in
contemplation a fundamental dimension of our Christian life. Contemplation is
not something optional or incidental; rather, it is a necessary gesture for all
Christians, be they laypersons, religious, or priests. We are all called to
become ‘contemplatives in action’!”